Monday, March 08, 2010

Endless War In A Service Economy

Growing up, my Grandfather had a cabin in Northern Michigan, on an inland lake, a log cabin he had built himself. On one corner of his property was a trailer, a two-wheeled trailer, with the axle in the center and some sort of railing around it, used for hauling wood from the forest, or garbage to the dump. When it was parked, and empty, one end stuck up in the air while the other touched the ground, much the way a see-saw looks when nobody's riding it. As children, we would stand at the lower end of the trailer and run up towards the high end, until that fell with a crash, and we were on the low end again, which caused us to laugh.
It's kind of like our political system. While at the edges, there are those who are doggedly right or left, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democratic, the bulk of American voters run from on side to the other. After several years of Bush cutting taxes and increasing spending started to put a damper on things, voters, the same voters who had voted Bush and Republican previously, ran to high end of the trailer, hoping that the Democrats would change things. Like they had promised. And while the system sank deeper into the shit, those on the right cynically asked "How's all that hope and change working out for ya? To which I reply, about as well as your cynicism and stagnation are working out for you, but I digress.
But as voters run from one side to the other, nobody seems to notice they're not getting anywhere. Things aren't getting better. There getting worse. The party we have chosen as leaders have decided they don't want to do anything that isn't bi-partisan. I guess they don't want to take the blame if things go wrong. The other party is offering nothing new, the same old tax-cuts-and increased-spending solution.
Our time is coming soon. Our schools are running out of funding. Our states are falling deeper into debt. Some can't even pay your income tax refund. Our politicians, both parties, have traded our future for endless war in a service economy. A lot of them are walking away this year, with a pension and a lifetime of free medical care. Most of them into a lobbying position with some mega-corporation that hasn't stolen enough from us. And what will we do about it?
Run to the higher end of the trailer, of course.

3 comments:

JesusFetusFajitaFishsticks said...

Great Post! I'm really afraid of the other end of the trailer getting weighed down again when this administration hasn't shifted the weight... AT ALL!
I'm really enjoying your blog a lot... quickly moving up the list of my favorite blogs.

Tom Harper said...

I'm too lazy to even run back and forth on the seesaw. It's too much fun to just stand here and fiddle while I watch Rome burn.

Niceguy Eddie said...

I really wonder where you get such rampant optimism from! LOL. Great post. Hits it right on the head. Email me when the revolution starts.